Nazir Afzal walked out of Buckingham Palace function…

Nazir Afzal walked out of Buckingham Palace function when he saw Priti Patel and Suella Braverman

Nazir Afzal says he walked out of a reception at Buckingham Palace when he saw Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.

The University of Manchester chancellor said he was afraid he would get into a row with the Home Secretary and her predecessor if he stayed.

“They are typical of people, I’m afraid, who just love divisiveness," he told a conference at Manchester's historic Friends Meeting House today (Wednesday).

“I knew if I stayed any longer I would get into a row with them in front of the Queen Consort and I thought that was probably the wrong place to have that conversation.”

Mr Afzal said Ms Patel and Ms Braverman 'wouldn’t know what the word integrity was if it hit them in the face. And they don’t know what principles are'.

The former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West was speaking during the This Is the North conference, organised by the People's Powerhouse movement.

Delegates from across the North gathered to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the region and how to create a fairer future for citizens.

Nazir Afzal (NICK WILKINSON/BIRMINGHAM LIVE)

Mr Afzal said the conference was about 'amplifying' the voices of those who are not usually heard.

He said: "You asked about power. Power technically sits in Westminster, it sits in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. But no, actually, it belongs to you.

"You the citizens have to act, it's just that you don't know how to use it, or there are barriers in your way to prevent you from using it."

Speaking of those in power, he said: "We've got to keep holding their feet to the fire.

"They can't keep giving us scraps off the table. We want the whole table."

He added: "This great region really has built itself. We're home of the Chartist movement, the Suffragette movement, the Cooperative movement - activist after activist and the People's Powerhouse is the latest iteration, in my view, of that."

Discussion during the conference spanned issues from inequality and growth to racism.

People's Powerhouse chair Edna Robinson said the North is facing huge challenges and is full of people who feel 'side-lined and ignored'.

She said there is 'no clear plan' for devolution in the North and asked if writing letters to the government is 'really the best we can do'.

"We are calling clearly for a democratic solution for the North," she said.

Using transport as an example, she said money should be spent growing towns 'not just our cities'.

She said the 'vast majority' of people who use transport are actually women taking children to school or childcare who won't see HS2 as a priority.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham also spoke at the conference.

Arriving late, he asked if anyone had mentioned the trains yet - a comment met with peals of laughter.

Mr Burnham and several Metro Mayors are due to meet Transport Secretary Mark Harper later today to discuss the railways.

He said those in the North are currently being treated as 'second class citizens' over issues such as transport. And he said the government's attitude towards Northerners was revealed during the pandemic, when much of the region was held in stringent lockdown measures for months on end.

The mayor said a 'complete rewiring' of how government works is necessary in order to create a fairer system.

Comparing Britain to an electricity map, he said Holyrood and Cardiff have a 'steady glow' and there are 'flickers' of light in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands.

"London however is glowing nuclear," he said.

The M.E.N has contacted both Priti Patel and Suella Braverman for a response regarding Mr Afzal's comments.

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